Le Quang Liem: "It Is the Biggest Success In My Life"

Soon after winning the World Blitz Championship Le Quang Liem answered on several questions at the press center:

"You know, this result was a big surprise for me. When I was coming here I did not even think about victory. There are lots of strong chess players who are famous all over the world. I just wanted to see what will happen and who will become the Champion. In fact I cannot recollect any success in any previous blitz tournaments. For instance last time when I played Aeroflot, I played badly though I was fifth in the starting list. And in the final list I was not even in the first 50 players. Today I did not play very well but with each game I had better game. By the end of the day I started to play more confidently, making less mistakes.

...It is the biggest success in my life. It happens once in a while when someone wins the World Champion’s title. This victory is very important for me, As for the chess side, I see that I need to learn and learn. I will not practice more, I will play more chess.

Before this success I had some achievements in chess career. They know me in Vietnam, they recognize me in the streets. I would like to underline that today’s success will not only give me energy in my future career but also will help the chess development in my country.

...I would be really great if the Vietnamese Chess Academy and our country in general will organize big chess competitions of high level. The main problem is to find sponsors. Unfortunately chess is not so popular in our country as other sports. For instance football. But I think that thanks to our chess players and their success during last years and particularly thanks to this success of mine in this championship, people would have more interest in chess.

I come to Khanty-Mansiysk for the 5th time. I was playing in the World Cup, took part in the World Chess Olympiad. There are many chess competitions of the international level, with good organization. I have very good memories about this city. It is a small and beautiful city. After this success Khanty-Mansiysk is a lucky place for me. I think it is just created for chess."

Cristobal Henriquez of Chile beat Boris Gelfand in the first round of the FIDE World Cup in Baku. Right after his triumph, the young IM gave an interview to our website, with the assistance of his coach GM Rodrigo Vasquez.

Е.SUROV: The women's world champion Anna Ushenina has now won the title as the member of the Ukrainian team. How does the "twofold" world champion feel?

A.USHENINA: I wouldn't say "the twofold" - earlier we have already won the Olympiad, we took award winning places at the European and World Championships, so this win wasn't that surprising for us. Anyways, it is of course very pleasant to win the championship with your team.